stevenkesslar

I like to say that one of my brothers is a Bloomberg Democrat, and one a McCain Republican. And they are both more rabidly anti-Trump than me, the liberal Democrat. Of course, Bloomberg governed NYC as a liberal Republican. My own worldview is that the things that Bloomberg did in his three terms, I'd argue more for good than bad, set the stage for Mamdani to come in as a corrective. The reason NYC is so damn expensive is that it is thriving. To me, you never want to throw out the capitalism with the bathwater. We Can’t Fix America’s Schools Without Data So there you have a full-throated defense of the Department of Education, and facts, from a billionaire who served as a Republican. You also have this: I had never heard of the Mississippi Miracle. Here's an explanation. It makes sense that Bloomberg would focus on this. It echoes what happened in NYC when he was Mayor. At a minimum, test scores did not get worse under Bloomberg. And they probably got better. I think there's little dispute about Bloomberg's initial years. Gaps between Black and White students narrowed. As that chart suggests, progress seems to have stalled out later on. In part because test scores dropped when NYC adopted tougher common core standards. Recreating a Past Success New York City once led the charge to improve inner-city schools—can it do so again?https://www.city-journal.org/article/recreating-a-past-success That article from right-of-center City Journal argues that deBlasio killed a period of innovation and improvement. Test scores did not improve. And then they plummeted - especially for the lowest income kids - under COVID. COVID was, in effect, the opposite of the Mississippi Miracle. Mississippi added resources to help teachers and focus on the best proven teaching techniques. COVID took away even the basics for the poorest kids. Like classrooms. This also makes me think of John McWhorter, who describes himself as a contrarian liberal Democrats. He was a one man attack machine against Black Lives Matter. His point was we don't need to defund the police. We need to fund phonics. The Mississippi Miracle suggests he has a point. I think it's true that there was a time in the US where better public education was a bipartisan issue. Legislators could meet in the middle. W was President No Child Left Behind. Those days are gone, at least in Trump's White House. Looking on the bright side, at least he hasn't come up with schemes to enrich his family through Trump U education. Who needs that when Genocide-Adjacent Jared can pander to the Genocide Jew and suck up billions from the Saudis? And besides. We will always have crypto. I don't know that Democrats really have an answer on public schools. It's fine to say we're not for charter schools as a solution. But what are we for? Oregon educators led the way to historic school funding victory I do like to brag. This is an example of be careful what you wish for. One of the funnest organizing campaigns of my life was "Kickers For Kids." The kicker is a weird law in Oregon that says if the state gets more tax revenue than it estimated, it has to refund the money to taxpayers. Corporations estimate their tax revenues. So there is an incentive to underestimate. One particular year in the 90's Oregon corporations were getting something like a 50 % tax refund due to the kicker, while Portland public schools were crippled by state initiatives that enacted property tax cuts. A County Chair, who literally was a former democratic socialist, told us in private that she could not support our goal of enacting a progressive county tax on the largest corporations to fund public schools. She was worried corporations would target her and drive her out of office. We did it anyway. She held her breath and backed us. The County Chair won re-election handily. Later she ran for Governor, but narrowly lost in the Democratic primary. We won a one year increase in the county business income tax. And all the ideas stuck. A few years later a state initiative passed saying any future corporate kickers have to go to public education. It helped, but mostly was a drop in the bucket. The very big deal was the 2019 law above, enacted over 20 years after these local organizing skirmishes. In the 90's when we were picking on Oregon corporations, the Republicans had solid majorities in both the House and Senate. Out most effective spokesperson was Avel Gordly, Oregon's only Black State Senator at the time. And an amazing talented leader who just passed away. By 2018 Democrats had solid majorities in the Oregon House and Senate. Which is why they could pass a 0.57 % gross receipts tax on Oregon's largest corporations to fund schools. Presumably this is where Wisconsin is headed, if we have a Governor Hong in 2027. And a Democratic legislative majority in Wisconsin in the future. This happened to kick in just as COVID did. So of course test scores were going to go down, just like they did all over the US and the world. Including in Mississippi. Spending more, Achieving less Oregon's Education Challenge One day a few weeks ago I did a deep dive into what has happened in Oregon schools now that they finally have the political conditions to tax wildly profitable corporations more to fund schools. It is not a rosy scenario, as that headline documents. Test scores went down due to COVID. And they have not come back up. Both US and Oregon test scores dropped between 2022 and 2024. Oregon scores actually got slightly relatively worse, compared to the US as a whole. That can't be blamed on COVID. I haven't been in touch with politicians and school leaders in Oregon on this issue for decades. But even as a liberal Democrat, I thought of John McWhorter. Too much woke bullshit, and not enough phonics. That was my Joe Rogan-like conclusion. But I base it on facts laid out in that report above. Whatever the cause, if that headline above is still true five years from now the tide will turn again. And Bloomberg-like Republican reformers will come roaring back in Oregon. Or is this what pragmatic, fact-driven and results-driven Democratic reformers in Wisconsin may do? Time will tell.

The bad stupid barking dog does not want to kill you. This is not intentional. The bad stupid barking dog does not want to kill children. Hundreds of thousands of kids and adults are dying from HIV thanks to Elon Musk. But the bad stupid barking dog does not intentionally want children to die. The bad stupid barking dog is not a mass murderer. In fact, I worry that Trump will turn our barking pup into Trump Steaks to feed the troops in Iran. The bad stupid barking dog is dangerous because he is stupid, and stupid because he is dangerous. But the bad stupid barking dog just wants to be seen as good and loyal and true. New: Michigan counties that voted heavily for Trump have more COVID-19 cases, deaths The fact that we are relitigating mass death from years ago, and facts that have long been established as facts, tells us that the bad stupid barking dog - like Elon Musk and Joe Rogan - is deeply committed to being stupid and dangerous. At least Joe Rogan calls himself a "moron" and disavows the idea that he knows shit about viruses and death. The bad stupid barking dog is too stupid and dangerous to even understand that he is a moron. Being an American during COVID meant you were more than twice as likely to die from the virus as a Canadian. And about 5 times more likely to die than an Australian. That said, many older vaccinated Australians died of COVID. Here's a news flash. Older people are just more likely to die from flu or COVID, even when vaccinated. It's a weird Trumpian standard. If Fauci opens his mouth, he proves he wants to kill us and is a publicity whore. If he shuts his mouth because he understands the bad barking dog is stupid and dangerous, he proves he wants to kill us and won't be accountable. Meanwhile, you were more than 5 times more likely to die if you lived in one of the reddest parts of Michigan after the vaccines came out. Michigan's Canadian neighbors knew better. But the bad barking dog does not want accountability, or truth. He does not want to save the lives of kids dying of HIV. He wants to be good and loyal and true. I wish I kept a screen shot of US death rates around when the vaccine came out. DeSantis was a poster child for one particular approach to COVID. And California was a typical blue state. Around the time the vaccines came out, I know California and Florida were both in the middle of the rankings of COVID death by state. I'd guess they were both clustered around #20 or so. Today, Florida was the 7th most deadliest state, right behind Michigan which was #6. Blue California was # 38, and had a death rate about 35 % less than Michigan or Florida. Michigan was Whitmer and Florida DeSantis. Poor Blacks in Wayne County with less access to affordable health care were more likely to die. Michigan was also one of the national focal points of Trumpian COVID resistance, and Whitmer assassination plots. The Trumpian resistance did result in more deaths in Michigan, as the chart above proves. Unless you are a bad stupid barking dog who has been vaccinated against facts. Poor thing. You really have to feel sorry for him. Fetterman actually wore a suit and made a good point at the Fauci Lynching Hearing. He said the facts around COVID got too polarized too quickly in 2020. True. I think it's fair to blame that mostly on Trump. But that just makes me a partisan. Trump voters did often pay for their resistance with their lives. I think Democrats were the most wrong on kids and schools. Test scores dropped like a rock and kids lost a part of their education. Older kids who were young adults by 2024 actually said they voted for Trump in part for that reason. That said, Fauci and the vaccine saved lots of lives. Just like Fauci and PEPFAR have saved the lives of millions of HIV patients all over the world. But the bad stupid barking dog insists Fauci wanted to kill himself. And you. The bad barking dog does not want to kill you. He does not intend children with HIV to die. The bad barking dangerous dog is good and loyal and true.

Thanks, Sis. You set up the next thing I will rant about. It's Sunday and I have nothing better to do. I am pivoting back to Wisconsin, and Hong. What Republican would not want the first map? And what Democrat would not want the second? The first map is Joe McCarthy's Senate map in 1946, when he won in a 63 % landslide as an anti-Communist war hero. He won a second term with 54 % of the vote. We know he is now discredited. We know he is connected to Trump by way of Roy Cohn. I'd bet money Trump will end up the same way. Trump won twice, by narrower margins. He never got 50 % of the vote. And I think Trump will ended up discredited, too. He already is discredited for about half of America. And more than half of the world. My point is you can be "strong and wrong" for a while. 12 years, in the case of both Joe McCarthy and Donald Trump. The second is the Senate map of Democrat Bill Proxmire in both 1970 and 1976. "Prox" won six Senate elections, the first to replace Joe McCarthy, with anywhere from 53 to 72 % of the vote. As such, he is the Democrat who won the most times, consecutively, in Wisconsin history. So this tells us Wisconsin can be the fountainhead of a lot of progressive things, and a lot of right-wing populism. And you could do worse than try to figure out what made Proxmire so successful as a Democrat. In the interview I posted of Hong, she ticked off a list of Wisconsin progressive icons that included Democrat Gaylord Nelson but excluded Proxmire. I can guess why she did that. Gaylord won three times and was defeated in his fourth try when he lost narrowly in 1980 during the Reagan landslide. Proxmire was the father of the Community Reinvestment Act. He chaired the Senate Banking Committee, and never took a dime in money from banks - or anyone. And he still won in landslides. He went to Green Bay Packers games and kept a little clicker in his pocket, which he clicked every time he shook hands or talked to a constituent. He had a quota for how many times he had to click the clicker before he sat down and enjoyed football. Does that count for BDE energy? When I think of Proxmire, I think of homeownership. It is really a Clinton thing. I Googled "Why did homeownership rates for the working class rise in the late 1990's" and got this: I also got this, which is the Proxmire/Clinton thing: Clinton took Proxmire's Community Reinvestment Act enacted in 1977, and all the bootstrap pilot projects worked on by community groups and the banks they forced into partnerships for over a decade, and turned it into a national working class wealth creation machine. It helped blue collar White working class people buy homes. It helped Blacks buy homes. It helped Hispanics buy homes. It helped Asians buy homes. The subprime defaults of 2008 were made on mortgages originated much later under W. Which were often unsound teaser rate refinances of sound fixed rate mortgages made under Clinton. It is a classic example of how, over a period of decades, government can mostly get things right. And then, under the wrong POTUS who lets the greedy predators loose, it all goes to shit. But it doesn't mean you throw capitalism out with the bathwater. Proxmire was very good with labor unions. So, to oversimplify Proxmire, was the kind of Democrat who said you should be able to support a family by working in a factory or farm, owning a home, and going to a Green Bay Packers game. Where you can shake my hand and tell me your problems. I'll help, and never ask for a dime. My Reaganite Dad loved Proxmire and his Golden Fleece Award. So that maybe had as much to do with those landslide wins as factory jobs and stable farms. Proxmire had a touch of RFK, Jr. before Trump. I just learned today from Wikipedia that the Senator became a verb. When he opposed some worthy science project, it got "proxmired". Examples included projects that studied why people fall in love, and why criminals want to get out of jail. Proxmire was accused of attacking good science projects for political ends. If Proxmire were Senator today, he might say that the good people of Wisconsin don't need to be told by some government agency that criminals want to get out of jail so they can rape and murder again. And I won't let them. Right or wrong, it worked. If Hong loses, this may be why. Maher is right that her dreamy stuff about a world without prisons sounds scary. The better update of Proxmire would be that you ought to be an Asian American Mom who can start a small business. And send your kid to a good public school. And get affordable child care. And you should be able to meet your Guv at a Bucks game, and even check out her Bucks tattoo. I checked and she rents an apartment in Madison. If she says the government should own homes, she loses. If she talks about government making homes affordable again, she wins.

Where Lichtman totally lost me is this. He argued that his analysis and prediction was correct. The problem is too many voters are stupid. They buy this bullshit or "vibe" on social media. So they just don't have the correct analysis, like he does. So, great! A pundit who is identified as Democrat and is an academic is telling Trump voters they are stupid. How novel is that? It is the equivalent of Brownstein saying that RFK is a negative for Trump. All Brownstein's arguments were correct, to a degree. But Trump won the election. And Castellanos won the argument. Especially in retrospect. I'm of course the pot calling the kettle black. Since my rant is that the bad stupid barking dog is dangerous and .................... well .................... stupid. Playing to stupid, or the related feature of "strong and wrong", works in politics, for a while. Especially if you are dealing with low information voters and barking dogs who watch sound bites on Tik Tok. If Fauci opens his mouth, he confirms he is Evil Fauci who wants to kill himself, and us. If Fauci does not open his mouth, he confirms that he is Evil Fauci, who wants to kill himself, and us. That only gets you so far. I think Fauci's reputation is intact. Rand Paul and Mark Halperin and a stupid dangerous barking dog only make themselves look petty and jealous when they rant like they do. But this worked for Trump, twice. Albeit with less than 50 % of the vote each time. I do think Lichtman is fundamentally right. His basic argument is that elections are not about vibes. And they never were. They are always about things that matter. It's the economy, stupid. No More Forever Wars. My main point about Lichtman in 2024 was that his analysis was wrong. It was the inflation and prices, stupid. Ukraine and Israel both hurt Biden more than they helped. Because people who saw them as Forever Wars voted for Trump. If El Sayed wins Michigan and Hong wins Wisconsin - huge IFs - it suggests that Biden and Harris were off message in 2024. As you note, Biden was just too old, anyway. El-Sayed and Hong have way better messages than saying lots of people who vote for Trump are stupid. Even though lots of people - and dogs - who vote for Trump are stupid. And dangerous. And completely full of shit.

While we don't advertise it, my Sister In Cock and I are very religious.

I really am just into into spontaneous political ranting now. But it is fun. You reminded me of Republican consultant Alex Castellanos. I think he is one of the smarter and more successful consultants out there. While Republican, he is basically an old school bipartisan-leaning political whore. Castellanos has used that formulation for decades. He is also credited with the term "soccer Mom." That rant piece is from 2018. It's 2026, and Morning Joe is doing just fine. Castellanos argues Republicans are always the daddy bear party. I think the best example is both Bush 41 and 43 leading the nation into war in scary times. Trump as Daddy Bear? Maybe. If we stipulate that Daddy is a rapist and serial liar and narcissist. 🫢 Castellanos says something interesting in that essay that is quite relevant today. Trump may get the facts wrong, but he gets the truth right. The media may get the facts right, but they get the truth wrong. That is how our bad stupid dangerous barking dog feels, no doubt. But that is what makes him stupid and dangerous. Facts are facts. The bad stupid barking dog, Joe Rogan, and Elon Musk can not produce facts about fraud. All they can rant is that they are not murderous. And Musk smugly laughs away criticism by saying there have been zero deaths. Even though the facts suggests clinics closed and pills stopped being delivered and lots of people are dying. But Bono is one of those guys who comes across as more "mommy party" than Joe Rogan, who is clearly "Daddy Bear". Why believe Bono, just because he has the facts? So Rogan kind of concedes that he was wrong about cutting things that save lives. But then he proceeds to spout more bullshit about trillions of dollar in fraud. Rogan has no clue he is arguing that USAID fraudulently allocated more money that it ever received. Rogan is a serial moron. As you say, it is an emotionally safe space for a stupid and dangerous dog to bark in. The bad stupid barking dog is dangerous and even murderous. Even though "murder" suggests an intention the bad stupid barking dog is too stupid to have. Here's another bizarre example of lie stacked upon lie upon lie that the bad stupid dangerous dog posted. Is Robert Kennedy, Jr. a Daddy Bear or the fallen away voice of the mommy party? Maybe eating bears makes you a Daddy Bear? Or does it just make you untruthful and dangerous and weird? Fauci’s Ailment Falsely Linked to Vaccine RFK Jr. and other conservatives claim that Anthony Fauci suffered a serious complication from the COVID-19 vaccine: NewsGuard’s False Claim of the Week It's not that the bad stupid dangerous barking dog wants people all over the world to die. It's just that he is too stupid to know he is dangerous. He is a fool, and most of us - but not him - know he is a fool who is dangerous and stupid. Poor thing. Every idea in that RFK, Jr. says in that brief Tik Tok video is wrong. One thing I like about AI is it fact checks pretty well, more often than not. So AI confirmed what a human fact checker said above. Fauci's side effect was not "highly expected." AI says the risk of the so-called side effect is "incredibly low." In the rare instances that it has occurred, it typically occurs in days or weeks. AI quotes an expert saying it can be considered a side effect if it happens in 30 days. Fauci's medical problem occurred five months after vaccination. RFK Jr is wrong about everything anti-vaccine he says. Who knew? What's weirdest about it is that the Evil Fauci dogma suggests that every Us President since Reagan was fooled by this guy. Millions of people with HIV whose lives were saved by a program started by Bush 43 and this guy were fooled by this guy. He got a shot that endangered his own life, five months later, goes the theory. Why? To endanger YOUR life. That is what RFK, Jr, and the bad stupid dangerous dog want us to believe. They are stupid, and dangerous. The facts are clear, as you pointed out. The US COVID death rate was almost double that of Canada, and 4 times that of Australia. There may be many reasons for that. But a big one is that people who listened to Fauci and got vaccinated were more likely to live. And people who did not get vaccinated were more likely to die. Australia proved the point. A lot of people who were vaccinated died. Because the vaccine does not stop old people from dying. Fauci never claimed it did. His own health problem seems to be related to his age, not being vaccinated. Go ask Lindsey Graham about aging and heart issues. The stupid bad dangerous dog is too stupid to know he is dangerous and too dangerous to know he is stupid. He really doesn't care that this bullshit, in both cases, is getting hundreds of thousands of people killed - whether they are seniors in America or kids in Africa. The stupid barking dangerous dog could care less. I'll end this sad rant by going back to Alex Castellanos and Joe Rogan. At the time, and in retrospect, I view that as two expert political whores at their best. But, in retrospect, Trump won. And Castellanos was right about what RFK, Jr. added to the ticket. Castellanos did not say this. But arguably RFK added some "mommy party" spice to Trump's "Daddy bear" appeal. As the host noted, RFK did talk about healthy food and kids. And also low-interest rate affordable mortgages. I thought RFK, Jr. was spot on about affordable housing. Brownstein was right that college educated women who RTFK, Jr. turns off are way more likely to vote than young men who didn't go to college. Rogan and RFK, Jr. helped get enough of those young men to vote that Trump could win a close one, again. Brownstein was right that Trump still could not get to 50.0 % of the vote. And a lot of those young men now regret the way they voted, which is why Trump is so disapproved of. No more Forever Wars? Right! And back to Rogan. If Talarico wins Texas, which polls suggest he could, that in itself is a political revolution. Here he is on Joe Rogan giving what might be considered a textbook definition of what it means to be a guy running in the "mommy party." But I don't think Talarico has BDE. If Ossoff, El-Sayed, and Talarico all win, it confirms that having a big dick is an optional feature in the Democratic Party. Lucky for some of us! 😉

I'll leave that to Allan Lichtman. Since he got 2024 badly wrong, it probably increases the odds that he will get 2028 right. Mark Halperin trashed Lichtman at one point in 2024 as just being too formulaic. And Halperin turned out to be right. I have my own rant about that. Lichtman has a key about being in a recession. And he said, correctly, we're not in a recession. But it felt like one to lots of voters. He also scored Ukraine as a foreign policy for Team Biden. That proved wrong too, I think. Trump proved quickly that a lot of Americans did not see Ukraine as worth the effort. So it's sure not a victory. I think Lichtman's Keys are still a very good model for analyzing why people vote the way they do. But nobody's analysis is perfect. Not totally unrelated: A lot of smart market analysts, like perma-bull Tom Lee, have been saying midterm election years are always rocky in the stock market. So he's been correct about the market all year, so far. He correctly anticipated a first quarter sag and a second quarter rally. He and others have been saying the market usually tanks around now, and September in particular is a bad month. But he just did a webinar a few days ago where he said maybe the bottom to this recent modest tech sell off is in. This is probably just a blip on the screen for most voters. But if the war continues to drag on, or get worse, and the market sags or tanks into the midterms, that will have an impact. Who knows? i don't.

So since I am whining about fact checking, I will fact check myself. El-Sayed is not Palestinian. He is Muslim, and his parts are immigrants from Egypt. By coincidence I read El-Sayed's Wikipedia page right before you posted that, @RockyRoadTravel . I was curious how far out there El-Sayed is. He has been married since 2006 and has two kids. Haley Stevens was married for one year, and got divorced. That's gossipy. But nothing bad jumped out at me about El-Sayed. El-Sayed was asked if he is a socialist. He said, nope. I'm a capitalist. Not all lefties are into democratic socialism. The other thing that jumped out at me is he was team captain for wrestling, football, and lacrosse in college. If he were a right winger, he could be Pete Hegseth. If "democratic socialist" becomes a scary label, @Pete1111 has offered us a creative solution. Perhaps Democrats could run Ossoff and El-Sayed on the BDE Party ticket? And make wrestling singlets their campaign uniform?

I think these podcasters make it worse. I get the idea that the mainstream media has an agenda, and always did. Duh! But this is out of the frying pan, into the fire. This Tik Tok bullshit about Joe Rogan amazes me. I think there's no doubt that Rogan helped Trump win in 2024. And he helped legitimize the idea that Elon Musk was opening the coffins at USAID so we could see the vampires inside finally - to use Rogan's colorful and totally bullshit language. I think it's true that if you listen to the whole podcast, you learn that these brief Tik Tok clips are often taken out of context. So Rogan is popular because he is a skeptic, especially of government. And he will talk about how it's not black and white. But with Musk and USAID, Rogan just keeps getting the facts wrong. Again and again and again. Everything from the WaPo to AI is saying Musk never documented the fraud he said existed. Rogan likes to say Musk claimed there were "no receipts", so you couldn't even find where USAID was sending the money. In fact, Musk's "receipts" of how much DOGE saved turned out to be total bullshit. What is not bullshit is that, as argued, hundreds of thousands of poor people - lots of whom are kids - are dying all over the world thanks to Elon Musk. Rogan will have Bono on his show and say this seems to be resulting is mass preventable death. Rogan will say somebody should have spelled that out. No, Joe. You should have spent five minutes on the computer fact checking Musk's lies. As you say, Rogan no doubt is just going for the ratings. But this is worse than the mainstream media. At least Fox News and MSNBC fact check. If only to avoid getting sued. I watch Steven Bartlett's Diary Of A CEO a lot. BBC has claimed Bartlett spreads lots and lots of unsubstantiated and dangerous information on health. He definitely airs lots of out their opinions. So it's probably true that in the course of their rants his guests manage to say things that are not true, intended or not. And they are probably often not fact checked. None of this is new in the history of politics or news. But right now is a particularly bad period for facts. And Rogan is one of the worst.

Now be honest, Sis. You haven't sucked his cock, have you? If so, perhaps that is part of the effortless confidence he projects. So enjoy. And keep taking one for for the team. P.S. I know. Only a whore would ask a question like that.

Great. You get Ossoff, and my Sister In Cock gets Mamdani. Who do I get? The barking dog? I

This is what communism means in Wisconsin these days: And this: And this: Kudos to Van Jones for bluntly calling out some of the lefty slogans that are simply toxic, as 2024 proved. Trump won because people don't want open borders. They do want rapists deported. Did I mention Donald Trump is a rapist? 🫢 Hong didn't really disavow Van Jones' shit list. She danced around it with lefty jargon. She sounded better when she talked about being a small business owner. Whether she can win or not may come down to being clear with voters about ideas that scare them. For most of American history, "same sex marriage" was an idea even more radical than "democratic socialism." It was illegal. It was evil. There was a period in the early 2010s that was really fun for me, and effective. A rich and Jewish liberal friend of mine was one of the top donors of same sex marriage efforts in California. I was a top volunteer training people to go door to door to fight for same sex marriage. I remember talking to him right before the SCOTUS ruling. He said, "I'll see you on the other side." This is one of those moments. I understand the excitement. I understand the hope. How will this end? I don't know. We'll all find out on the other side. See ya there.

That is literally true. And that video proves it. Everyone who Maher cited as being on his side is old and White. Karl Marx, by the way, looks old and white. The 12 people Maher put in his "bad Commie" graphic all look younger. They are either women or not White, or both. Maher literally calls affluent White people stupid for raising their kids the wrong way. Mamdani is getting shit for ignoring the outer boroughs. And he's getting it from Black and Latino leaders. If only Blacks had voted, Cuomo would be Mayor today. That said, as Maher just proved, when you look at the leaders of this movement they are not old White men like Jim Carville. If my Sister In Cock is giving free blow jobs to Mamdani because of a rent freeze, that does not suggest this is mostly about helping entitled rich White DSA idiots advance their stupid ideas. Maher applauded the ideas of Democrats Tom Souzi and Adam Gray. Souzi actually wants to CUT corporate taxes. But he wants to do it as a reward for corporations giving 5 % of their stock to their workers. You can go either way on that. Giving the means of production to workers is literally communism. So Maher could attack Souzi and Gray as communists, too. Most Americans think Wall Street and billionaires are living their best lives while rent and homes are unaffordable. And kids in Africa die because Elon Musk wants more government money for himself. I agree with most Americans. We should raise corporate taxes. If it's the law, you don't have to bribe them. I've been in rant mode for days. So I'll shut up. I'm glad Maher is saying these things. If these insurgents want to win 50 % of the vote, they are going to have to explain themselves. Especially in swing states. And if they get elected, like Mamdani, they are going to have to prove it. I trust my Sister In Cock, who feels Mamdani is delivering the goods. I'll just never reveal which famous politicians I've given blow jobs to, 🤔

It's not that the bad dumb dog wants to kill you. It's not that the bad dumb dangerous dog wants you, or children, to die. It's not that @Barknaway smugly and ignorantly looks down on the poor nations of the world. And yet 1 million Americans did die. And not getting vaccinated is one reason America had a death rate over twice that of Canada, and 4 times that of Australia. It's not that the bad dumb dog wants children to die. But hundreds of thousands of kids in poor nations are dying - right now - thanks to Elon Musk. Even Joe Rogan admitted he's a "moron" and walked it back. But the bad dumb dog does not know the difference between opinion and facts. Even Elon Musk admits this, in a sideways way. He smugly laughed that when he decided to cut HIV and AIDS funding because of fraud he never documented, Bill Gates or somebody could have done something before these kids died. Musk is an engineer who builds space ships. Shouldn't Gates be able to stop food from rotting in warehouses, and immediately open back up the clinics that Musk closed in poor countries? If kids die, can't we just blame Bill Gates? Isn't Musk's brilliance and arrogance and evil something we all should admire? Of course the bad dumb dog does not believe in experts, other than Donald Trump and RFK, Jr. The bad dumb dog is so stupid and dangerous that he can not even use Google. Maybe Tik Tok should be required by law to automatically fact check really obviously stupid things people, including Trump, say on Tik Tok. That might help stop the spread of really stupid and dangerous bullshit. It might help slow down the spread of death, I asked AI if "injections" of "disinfectant" into the "lungs" can "knock out" COVID" in as quickly as "one minute." Those are the key words Trump used that stunned the entire planet. Try it yourself. Here is what AI said: No, injecting disinfectant into the lungs is not a cure for COVID-19 and is extremely dangerous and potentially fatal. [1, 2] Severe Medical Risks Destruction of Tissue: Disinfectants are designed to kill germs on hard surfaces, not inside living tissue. Lung Damage: Inhaling or injecting these chemicals causes immediate, severe chemical burns to the delicate airways and lung tissue. Systemic Poisoning: Entering household cleaners into the bloodstream leads to organ failure, toxic shock, and death. [1, 2, 3, 4] Expert Warnings Manufacturer Warnings: Following public speculation, Reckitt Benckiser, the manufacturer of Lysol and Dettol, issued an explicit statement warning that under no circumstances should their products be administered into the human body through injection, ingestion, or any other route. [1, 2] Global Health Authorities: The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Mayo Clinic state clearly that while disinfectants kill viruses on external surfaces, they are highly toxic if used internally. [1, 2]

Isn't spreading lies from Robert Kennedy, Jr. and ignorance from Joe Rogan enough for one day? I thought @Barknaway showed us his true self! Doesn't the bad dumb dog get extra credit for being so stupid and dangerous that he is still spreading bullshit that Rogan himself has disavowed - twice? Rogan disavowed his own bad advice that young people should not be vaccinated for COVID, and his bad facts on the devastating and murderous impact of the USAID cuts on poor kids around the world. Rogan called himself a "moron". The bad dumb dog is still pushing the lies. It's not that the bad dumb dog is intentionally murderous. He doesn't want to see children die. Poor thing. He just can't help that he's loyal to liars, and stupid. In others words, I think the bad dumb dog was especially good and loyal and true today.

Intellectually, I completely agree with you. Emotionally, it's a different story. I've had a bias about Jews pretty much my whole adult life. They tend to be empathetic. They tend to look out for underdogs. They tend to be fierce advocates of social justice. As I like to repeat, in the same way that Fauci likes his touches with stardom, I consider my mentor to be Paul Wellstone, a Jew and a famous and beloved progressive US Senator. I mostly knew him as a college professor, but one of my best friends ran his campaigns. He talked about his family background a lot. His grandparents fled anti-Semitism in Europe. He had a heart of gold and great values. And you could not understand his values without knowing about his family background. In the Senate he was a strong supporter of Israel, and a two state solution. That's typical for lots and lots of Jews I have been friends with and worked with as paid staff or volunteers on social justice causes. So using the term "Genocide Jew" seems odd, and frankly almost anti-Semitic. But I use it a lot these days. When I talk about my life experience with Jews, I have sorted out now in my mind that I am mostly talking about liberal American Jews. When I say "Genocide Jew", I refer to one specific individual. That said, the Genocide Jew gets elected and gets away with genocide because a lot of Israeli Jews keep voting for him. 68 % of Democrats now say "Israel is committing genocide against Palestinian civilians." That number blows my mind, even though I am one of the 68 %. 45 % of Independents say Israel is committing genocide. Perhaps more important, only 15 % of Independents say Israel is NOT committing genocide. The rest are undecided. This is just going to get uglier, and more awkward. Most Jewish members of Congress are Democrats. I think most Jews are Democrats. So I think it is important for Democrats to have this debate. Because on an emotional level it does have this feeling like it is being against Israel. Or, on a more personal level, being against these people I respect and admire. I have mixed feelings about what El-Sayed is saying. Precisely because, as you say, I have had a way of thinking about this my whole life. If El-Sayed wins the nomination, my guess is he will shift toward the center. Democrats can not equivocate about Israel's right to exist OR Palestinian's right to be free from genocide. On the face of it, these numbers about Democrats and Independents do not suggest El-Sayed is off on some extreme. If anything, they suggest why he is beating Stevens. Even 17 % of Republicans say Israel is committing genocide. Exactly half say Israel is NOT committing genocide. This is a problem for Republicans as well. Which I'm pretty sure JD Vance is aware of. Add the horrors in Iran. The Republican leaders of the US have a lot of deep problems that won't go away. Like Robert Pape says, thanks to Trump's stupidity I think there's a decent chance Iran will test a nuclear bomb while Trump is still President. I worry that this could split the Democratic Party. But I could build just as a strong a case that it will split the Republican Party. In a way it already has. Some Republicans do not want JD Vance to be their President. And this is part of the reason why. I think it's a plus that Democrats get to work this out now, in primaries and general elections. And we have some of the best Jewish Congressional leaders on this issue. It was catnip to me, as a liberal Democrat, when Warnock and Ossoff ran and won in Georgia. Lots of people thought a fiery Black preacher might be a riskier candidate in Georgia than a moderate White - aka the kind of Democratic candidates who lost for decades. The winning ticket was a Black and a Jew moving the South toward what I would call social justice. And grace. That is a very good part of America's DNA. I would not mind a Warnock/Ossoff ticket in 2028. But imagine an Ossoff/El-Sayed ticket. I'm not suggesting it. But it would be a very powerful thing to have a Jew and a Palestinian running together for President of the United States. Yeah, identity politics is now passe. But it would say something important about what Democrats stand for. Which is what so many Democrats want. And feel our party lacks right now. And both Ossoff and El-Sayed are talking about schools and kids in their own states. Then again, if El-Sayed wins the nomination and loses the election, and that means Democrats lose the Senate, the wrath of the Old Testament God will descend on democratic socialists. Plagues? Locusts? Hopefully we'll never know. 😉 But if he wins, I think El-Sayed can thank Donald Trump and his stupid war. Like I said above, the action is in the reaction.

Kids in Africa are dying right now, today, thanks to Elon Musk. The bad dumb dog does not know or care. Joe Rogan Admits Trump USAID Cuts Went Too Far In Bono Debate: ‘Got To Be a Way To Keep Aid and Not Fraud’ Again, I respect Bono for going on Rogan and taking on Rogan's complete ignorance. In this case, I can't say I respect Rogan. It was made very clear by the mainstream media that Rogan has replaced, at least for some people, that these cuts would have devastating consequences. They would kill people. Especially children. And they have. The reason people who listen to Joe Rogan don't know this is that Joe Rogan doesn't know it. I did watch as much of Joe Rogan as I could bear when this DOGE disaster was happening, just to see what he Rogan saying. He had zero facts. Zero, from what I could tell. He talked about Elon Musk like he was some Dark Knight hero, who was willing to selflessly "open the coffins" so we could "see the vampires inside". While Musk got all those nice government contacts, of course. It was just about that analytical. Blowhard opinion. Zero fact. Rogan now has zero facts to offer about the "massive fraud" DOGE was supposedly getting rid of. If instead DOGE unleashed massive death, well who could have known? This is not as bad as Elon Musk saying these DOGE cuts to AIDS victims caused zero deaths. That is truly an evil thing to say. Musk is ignorant about the impact of his actions because he wants to be. He considers his own living child to be dead, because the child is queer. In this case Rogan himself was not the source of a controversial statement or action, like when he said young people should not get vaccinated. He has every right to state his ignorant blow hard opinions. Obviously he has an audience that likes to hear it. And then later he'll basically say, "Oh, I was ignorant. I wish somebody had told me." He obviously does not see his job as understanding facts, and communicating them to viewers. Rogan flips and flops to get ratings. He knows he's not able to understand, let alone offer, reliable information. He knows he's a blowhard. Which means he won't last. He's a perfect blowhard for our age of populist cynicism and fact-free self destruction. And our bad dumb dog is not evil, either. He just likes to bark when he gets excited about lies and stupidity. The DOGE cuts are reversing decades of work by Bush 43 and Fauci, among others. Musk could care less. And all our bad dumb dog can do is bark. I'll admire Rogan a little if and when he admits he was wrong and ignorant. And when he calls for the restoral of life-savings medicines that he says never should have been cut. The bad dumb dog will never admit he was wrong. How could he? He's just a stupid and dangerous dog.

The bad dumb dog celebrates lies. The bad dumb dog celebrates misinfornatiom. The bad dumb dog celebrates Elon Musk cutting programs to prevent death from AIDS. The bad dumb dog celebrates death of kids with AIDS. Now the bad dog wants to celebrate Joe Rogan being an "idiot". The bad dumb dog does not even understand the difference between fact and opinion. The bad dumb dog does not know or care when people have no fucking idea what are they talking about. The bad dumb dog just likes to bark. Why should a bad dumb dog care if children die? Joe Rogan Walks Back COVID-19 Comments "I am not a respected source of information," the Spotify podcast host said Thursday. The bad dumb dog is not evil. He is just dangerous and stupid. He does not even understand these simple distinctions It is a perfect example of why it is dangerous to pretend blowhard's opinions, which they have every right to state, are the same as facts. As my much prettier and younger Sister In Cock just stated, more brilliantly than I will, we all have opinions. And we all have assholes. I give credit to Fauci for taking Rogan on. And to Rogan for admitting that on this subject he spoke as an ignorant idiot who could cause harm. I assume he walked what he said back because he didn't want his words to kill people, even innocently. Our bad dumb dog can not even understand these things. He is stupid, and dangerous.

Trump dings longtime ally Jeanine Pirro for dropping Reflecting Pool vandalism case Lies and coverup. Lies and coverup. Lies and coverup. I was curious how Trump would react when Pirro dropped the case. I can't say I am surprised. Trump was pissed when even He Man Ass Licker Pete Hegseth wouldn't insist that Trump's lie - that we didn't burn Iranian school girls to death - was something that needed to be investigated., I'm guessing after a thorough investigation there was no chance in hell that Pirro could defend Trump Lie #1,629,045. Bitch! And that is being generous to Pirro. This is what she said before: And here's what former Olympic canoeist David Hearn said: Obviously both statements can't be true. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say a judge may lie for Trump in public. But she knows better than to make an ass of herself in court. Not that Trump would ever throw Pirro under the bus. This was all supposed to be about honoring America's 250th birthday. So it does seem to be fitting. Trump wants to Make America Prevaricate Again. He's losing more and more Republicans on that one. Even some of his staunchest allies. (Don't worry, President Genocide. You'll always have Hegseth.) David Hearn is no Anthony Fauci. But it fits a pattern. Lie, cover up, and tear down heroes and truth tellers. How American is that? No wonder Richard Nixon is making a rebound among Republicans. But there is some good news. We don't have to go back to the shit hole we can from. Thanks to Trump, we are already there.

Trump, under pressure on Iran, takes his Cabinet to the woods I'm not sure whether to view this as comedy or tragedy. It's obviously both. President Genocide nods off more and more every day. As @RockyRoadTravel noted, he's less dangerous when he's asleep. When he is awake, he says things even Pete Hegseth can't make up good lies about. About how we didn't burn Iranian school girls to death. And how the zealot Gay murdering theocrats will just "peter out" after half a century. LOL. Trump is visibly petering out after more than half a century. Maybe Trump thought the symbolism of Camp David would add seriousness to what could generously be called "deliberations" and "planning." But it really is putting lipstick on a pig named Trump. The advisors who told him this would go badly are now telling him how well things are going. And how much courage he has in between naps. Pete did say "courage" ten times, the article spells out. At least Pete has testosterone, and a Trumpian vocabulary. I should end here. But I will add thoughts about who and what Trump is really empowering. The action is always in the reaction, said Jewish Saul Alinsky. It is my opinion that Trump is making "democratic socialism" stronger. Whatever you want to call that movement, and whatever it really stands for, and whatever crazy ideas it has at the margin, I think two ideas are getting stronger by the day: 1) the economy is unfair and unaffordable to many if not most people, and 2) the Iran war is a very unpopular mistake, and we are losing. There is a new poll out today that shows El-Sayed will do a better job than Haley Stevens of beating his opponent. In this poll Stevens and Republican Rogers are neck and neck, and El-Sayed is three points ahead in the general election. Meanwhile, survey says he is over 10 points ahead of Stevens in the primary. I don't know if I buy that. The RCP poll average suggests the opposite, by a fraction. El-Sayed is 0.7 % behind Rogers, Stevens is 0.7 % ahead. In other words, it's a tossup. I will always wonder what would have happened in 2016 if Bernie Sanders, the voice of left wing populism, had run against Donald Trump, the voice of right wing populism. Looks like in 2024 we will get an approximate answer. Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania have been swing states for a long time. Wisconsin is near and dear to my heart. It's where my family always went on vacation. Wisconsin gave us Joe McCarthy. And then Bill Proxmire, an everyman liberal populist. I adored Bill Proxmire because he was the nation's anti-redlining and affordable homeownership champion. Had Proxmire been POTUS, I believe he would have stopped subprime. My conservative Dad loved Proxmire's "Golden Fleece" awards singling out small but stupid government boondoggles. Turns out most Americans think the Iran war is a big government boondoggle. It does not surprise me that Jim Carville is wetting his diapers about this. So am I. Even though I'll send money monthly to El-Sayed as soon as he wins a primary. Carville's boss Bill Clinton came closer than any US President to a two state solution. I blame that failure squarely on Arafat. And whether that is true or not, it is for sure true that Palestinians ended worse off and Israel ended better off, measured by power and wealth. Arafat was a shitty leader with no courage and no vision. Trump is the same. So it's more than risky for El-Sayed to frame this the way he is doing it. But we won't know how well it will work if we don't try. And Democratic voters are speaking with their votes: they seem to want to try. At lease in more urban areas and states. THIS is what President Genocide is making stronger. THIS is what the Genocide Jew is making stronger. Jim Carville is missing something. He says EVERY Democrat will have to explain what El-Sayed and other progressives mean. That is true. But it also means El-Sayed and like minded progressives will have to explain what THEY mean by "democratic socialism" or "Israel's right to exist." I brought up Proxmire because El-Sayed is actually running a Golden Fleece campaign. Part of what he's saying is the Genocide Jew is a government boondoggle. And we're better off spending our tax dollars on kids in Michigan. My conservative Dad, who grew up in Michigan, would probably agree with that idea. He's also running in a primary. My guess is if he wins the primary, the thing he says above that is buried inside an argument will probably become the argument: Most liberal Jews I know would probably say that's a pro-Israel statement. I'm not a Jew. But I do think America should defend Israel's right to exist. I think that statement is consistent with my beliefs. I think the Genocide Jew is Israel's worst enemy. And I think Trump is America's worst enemy. He is weakening America. He is making America lose again. This is Viet Nam. We'll learn soon what Michigan thinks.

I've made my point about this already, more than once. 🫢 But I have paid a lot of attention to this during the week. So I will ramble on. As I said in my first post, what bothers me more than anything is the intentional breeding of cynicism, as I see it. Maybe it is witless breeding of cynicism and mistrust. But these people like Mark Halperin and Rand Paul and Robert Kennedy Jr. ought to know better. They all claim to be or want to be or were "Washington Insiders." They all say they want transparency, which builds trust. So they should know that all they are doing is taking one of the few people most Americans still trust and admire and trying to tear him down. If they had a reason to do it, I'd be all for it. But they don't. I'm 100 % with Fauci on this. No one attacking Fauci is reporting that Fauci wrote in his notes in 2020 that Trump's public statements during COVID were "spewing nonsense" and a "true embarrassment." They focus on how Fauci did write that he was restricted from being on TV by Team Trump. The logical conclusion from the words on the page is that Fauci wanted to do his job, and spew facts on TV. Which he did. While 1 million Americans were dying. These so-called "journalists" and "leaders" are ignoring some facts and amplifying others to paint a completely distorted picture of reality. How MAGA! Across Partisans, Doctors Are the Most Trusted Source for Reliable Information on Health Issues; Fewer Trust Government Agencies and Officials I thought that was an interesting and actually somewhat hopeful survey. Just about half of Americans trust the CDC. No surprise, slightly more Democrats (58 %) than Republicans (49 %) do. No surprise, the vast majority of Republicans trust Trump and Robert Kennedy Jr. to provide "reliable information" on health issues. The vast majority of Democrats and Independents do not trust Trump or Kennedy. I'd call this healthy skepticism. The one thing I give Rand Paul credit for is that he has helped make "gain of function" a household word. He held a hearing on what kinda sorta sounds like a CIA coverup of bioweapons research. Maybe. Shining a spotlight on what research happened in Wuhan and what role the US government played made sense. Journalists should and did push back on Fauci's opinion that this was likely caused by a natural transfer from some animal to humans. Gary Peters' opening statement at The Pitchfork Hearing is worth a listen. Sen. Peters makes opening statement in Fauci hearing He notes that the Senate committee looked into this and learned from it, on a bipartisan basis. He also says this is now a backward looking partisan exercise in sharpening pitchforks around partisan crusades. He argues, and I agree, that Rand Paul is more interested in distorting truth than exposing truth. The claim that somehow Fauci was involved, directly or indirectly, in creating the virus he was responsible for dealing with is nonsense. In 2021 Tucker Carlson, being the intentionally deceptive piece of shit he is, claimed Fauci "created" COVID. Rand Paul is smart enough to add "may" and "could have" and "possibly" to any sentence he utters arguing Fauci is somehow culpable. Fauci is entitled to his opinion, which is that COVID did not originate from a lab leak. Both publicly and privately he continued to say some scientists disagree, and while "less probable than the alternatives" it can't be ruled out. Doubt is not deception, or a crime. Here's a very long fact check article about the issues Rand Paul is rightfully concerned about. One thing the length and detail makes clear is this is complicated, and nuanced. I'll amplify a few things that are opinions, but seem close to facts. One scientist says NIH is not going to fund gain of function research that makes viruses more lethal to humans. And they are certainly not going to do it China. That seems like common sense to me. Especially while Trump was President. Another scientist says that even if some experiment went awry in China, it can't be tied to the specific research NIH did fund that used a subcontract with Wuhan: I suspect Rand Paul knows this. Why he thinks Fauci should be thrown in jail, discredited, and humiliated is a good question. Why he won't let go of this crusade is a good question. Every President since Ronald Reagan said the opposite about Fauci, repeatedly and publicly. Even Donald Trump, at least when he thought it was politically expedient. Elon Musk is going to kill lots of kids in Africa that George W. Bush and Anthony Fauci have proven could be saved. Tom Tillis, to his credit, turned Trump against him by taking a stand on how Medicaid cuts would hurt people in North Carolina. These Trump people and ass lickers are cynical and power-hungry. Lacking an argument, he MAGA Pitchfork crowd focus on the claim that Fauci kept a diary to admire himself. Because he loves adulation. Including self-adulation. I don't even know if there is a "diary." Kennedy said the "diary" had to be pulled off 11 servers over the course of months. So they actually sound more like notes Fauci kept. No one who wants to attack him is talking about how often he wrote that the death threats against him and his family were very concerning. So the Tucker Carlsons will make up total bullshit about how Fauci created COVID. But when nitwits listen to this bullshit and threaten to kill Fauci, then they want to say Fauci just likes all the public and private adulation. They totally ignore statements like this: Nor did he like Trump "spewing nonsense" about Clorox. Who committed what crime here? Peggy Noonan just published an essay that, to me, reads like "1000 Points Of Libel." She tears Fauci down, too, focusing on how lots of people - like me - chose to admire him. Without mentioning that Fauci said again and again and again he did "not like this one bit." The diaries humanize him. He was no doubt both amused and honored by the sudden admiration. Who wouldn't be? People wanted heroes and truth. We sure as fuck were not getting that from President Clorox. And we now know for a fact that Fauci knew and wrote that Trump was "spewing nonsense" in his private notes. No wonder MAGA doesn't like or trust Fauci A so-called "journalist from The Atlantic just weighed in, too. And I think it confirms my theory. Petty and jealous journalists like Mark Halperin are just that: petty and jealous. In his rant against Fauci, here's what Mark Leibovich reported Fauci wrote after going to another "Washington A List" Party: Can anyone imagine Donald Trump ever writing that? Or being humble or introspective in any way? Like maybe before starting a stupid war that America has already lost and that is doing a massive amount of global harm? Here is what Mark Leibovich has to say about what sounds like, to me, Fauci's amusement and humility in the face of sudden fame. But also outright fear of things like death threats to his family. I'll take that as an admission of what this is really about: jealousy, and pettiness. The title of The Atlantic essay is "What The Fauci Diary Reveals About Washington." I think the title gets it right. What I just learned about Fauci really told me nothing new. But it did humanize him. What this reinforced about Washington is that it is chock full of petty and jealous people. Including journalists. Like Mark Halperin. His fall from grace was that some women claimed he rubbed his erect penis on them when all they wanted was an assignment, or a job. I'm all for redemption. I think Halperin was and is a very gifted journalist. But this proves he is also a petty, jealous, and tone deaf man.

The bad dog celebrates lies. The bad dog celebrates Elon Musk. The bad dog celebrates death of kids with AIDS. PEPFAR funding cuts will lead to up to 74,000 excess HIV deaths in Africa by 2030, experts warn

The bad dog celebrates lies. The bad dog celebrates Elon Musk. The bad dog celebrates death of kids with AIDS. PEPFAR funding cuts will lead to up to 74,000 excess HIV deaths in Africa by 2030, experts warn

OH MY GOD! Our dumb lonely genocidal dog can write. All this time he's been hiding it from us! And I suppose it makes sense. Because when he does write, it just illustrates how fact free he is. What a dumb murderous dog! What a sad pathetic murderous dog! The sad pathetic murderous dog revels in lies. The sad pathetic murderous dog uses words to rationalize and defend utter murderous lies. I wish Elon Musk and Donald Trump could be prosecuted for mass murder. But cutting PEPFAR, programs put together by George W. Bush and Fauci, is not a prosecutable offense. It's just bad politics. And inhumane. But, actually, it is good politics for the sad pathetic murderous dog. He comes here to celebrate the lies and distortions and cruelty and death. Bad dog! Bad dog! No treats for you today. Just death! The bad dog celebrates lies. The bad dog celebrates Elon Musk. The bad dog celebrates death of kids with AIDS.

You had me at, "And THAT'S news?????"